Pablo Picasso once said, "Computers are useless, they can only give you answers." He was right. Correct answers to the wrong questions get you nowhere.

The crisis in commodities is feeding back into the cost of energy. The amount of raw materials (both steel and fuel) required to bring new oil fields into production is growing rapidly.

Sooner or later, you'll get more energy return in less time by using the oil to make composite blades and the steel to make pylon towers than to drill in really out-of-the-way places. The question is, how close are we to that day? Could some places be there already?